@npr: The largest ever relocation of captive whales in the world is over after the shuttered Niagara Falls theme park, Marineland, shipped its’ last six captive whales to two aquariums in the United States.   The now closed Ontario theme park said more than a year ago it could no longer afford to keep the whales and unless they were allowed to relocate them to other facilities they would be euthanized.   Marineland has now shipped 30 belugas and four dolphins to five different aquariums, four of them in the U.S. and one in Spain. One beluga died several weeks ago after being moved to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.   A previous attempt to send the whales to an aquarium in China was blocked by the Canadian government. In 2019 Ottawa banned whale and dolphin captivity but allowed those at Marineland to stay there.   Find “NPR News Now” wherever you listen to podcasts.   Host: Lakshmi Singh/NPR Reporter: Dan Karpenchuk/NPR Producer: Michael Zamora/NPR

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Saturday 05 September 2026 20:56:00 GMT